As someone who has been on a self-help journey for about a decade now, I can safely say that working on yourself can certainly get boring. While so many of the tools we employ are critically helpful, a lot of the “fixing” comes from living life and course correcting while making mistakes. If you spend too much time tweaking and rebirthing, you’ll miss out on the battle scars that build your true character. It’s important to switch up our wellness habits so that the brain shifts out of autopilot and engages with a new part of our spirit. For example, talk therapy forever can be sufficient for some, but others need varied outlets like somatic therapy or EMDR to really move through something.
I’ve collected countless journals over the seasons of my life, documenting every win and crash out. They serve as records of who I’ve been and who I became, a map through my metamorphosis. Yet, I’ve found myself a bit fatigued from how systemic journaling can feel. Whether I’m answering prompts or writing what I’m feeling, it can sometimes feel that I’ve said everything I want to say. That is precisely why I decided to give junk journaling a try.
A creative, free-form style of journaling where you collect and repurpose everyday “junk” like ticket stubs, stickers, magazine clippings, pressed flowers, and doodles, it’s the best way to still tend to your inner world while bringing your inner child into your healing practice. I tried junk journaling for a week to explore a new way to wellness, and the results were incredible.
What Is Junk Journaling?
It’s no secret that journaling can do wonders for your mental health. It’s a private outlet for your inner world. Plus, putting your thoughts and emotions on paper helps you process and understand yourself more intimately. It can provide clarity on why you’re moving through certain obstacles, and serve as a documentation of your growth over time. However, for those maintaining a consistent journaling practice, it’s easy to want something new. It can get boring to only express yourself through writing, as you may be longing for something more interactive and dynamic. There are many ways to bring fun and creativity into your journaling practice.
Though you may not realize it until you decide to pay attention, your everyday life consists of a plethora of tiny scraps. From letters, to receipts, to fabric pieces, these slices of junk that we tend to overlook tell a story about our lives. In the junk journaling practice, they’re valued as gold. Nothing is too random or too imperfect to be included. You want to feature every little piece of your life, building out a mosaic of your daily world.
It’s part scrapbook, part diary, part art therapy, and the benefits are countless:
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Regulates emotions
- Reignites an intuitive sense of creativity
- Grounds the nervous system
- Encourages you to let go of perfectionism
- Helps break through creative blocks
- Helps you express things you can’t articulate
- Encourages you to be more present
- Reduces waste by repurposing materials
From a coffee sleeve from a date with your bestie, to a boarding pass from a solo trip, to a grocery list, junk journaling paints a portrait of a very specific time in your life, one you’ll be grateful to have the chance to look back on.
My Week of Junk Journaling
After a week of junk journaling myself, my inner child feels alive and satiated. It a healthy outlet of expression. It also made me pay more attention to my life and the details all around me. I had to be present enough to collect the leaves and movie stubs that encapsulated the particular momenst in my life. It made me realize how long it had been since any form of crafts was a part of my life. That creative voice had been dormant while awaiting an opportunity to take center stage.
In a hyper-digital world where I feel very burnt out from the internet, junk journaling satisfies my craving for tactile creativity and screen-less self care. There’s no pressure to curate an aesthetic; in fact, my junk journal being imperfect is kind of the whole point. While I don’t think junk journaling will replace my regular journaling practice, I’m most certainly incorporating it on a monthly basis.
If you’re ready to give junk journaling a try yourself, walk into your next week with intention. Take notice of the little pieces of life that find their way to you and collect them. Common junk journaling materials include:
- Stickers, washi tape, stamps
- Receipts, tickets, tags, envelopes
- Magazine pages, old book pages
- Scrap paper, wrapping paper, tissue paper
- Photos, postcards, handwritten notes
- Fabric scraps, lace, pressed flowers
Have fun doodling, cutting and glueing, and expressing yourself with no “final product” pressure. All you have to do is grab a sketchbook and let your creative mind run free. You can add words and drawings, or keep it strictly junk scraps. Themes help if you feel stuck, like a page dedicated to your week, a mood, a color, or an event. What matters is that you’re having fun and remaining authentic.